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Feasibility Study: Testing the Market
The following is adapted with permission from HOMEMADE FOR SALE: How to Set Up and Market a Food Business from your Home Kitchen by Lisa Kivirist and John D. Ivanko While you may have a great-tasting...
View ArticleLobbying for or Amending a Cottage Food Law
The following is adapted with permission from HOMEMADE FOR SALE: How to Set Up and Market a Food Business from your Home Kitchen by Lisa Kivirist and John D. Ivanko Forty-two states have some form of...
View ArticleFood Freedom Is No Longer A Myth
Yes, food freedom is real. The term has become increasingly popular: you may have heard it around the dinner table, at farmers markets, or even at a food freedom fest. This catchphrase of locavore...
View ArticleHot Trends for a Cottage Food Operation
The following is adapted with permission from HOMEMADE FOR SALE: How to Set Up and Market a Food Business from your Home Kitchen by Lisa Kivirist and John D. Ivanko From Buy Local to Small Business...
View ArticleWhy Health Departments Hate Cottage Food Laws
Imagine this: you’re running a childcare center for toddlers and you have way too much to do every single day. Cooking, cleaning, checking up on the kids, and always keeping an eye on them to make sure...
View ArticleStatus of the Cottage Food Industry
I recently received a few questions from Sid, who’s doing some research on the cottage food industry. The questions are high-level enough that I realized they’d make a good blog post, so I’m sharing my...
View ArticleCottage Food Operator Self-assessment
The following is adapted with permission from HOMEMADE FOR SALE: How to Set Up and Market a Food Business from your Home Kitchen by Lisa Kivirist and John D. Ivanko Do you have what it takes to be a...
View ArticleStop Worrying About Your Sales Limit
I hear something like this a lot: Hi David, I’m thinking of starting my business making XYZ cottage food products, but my only concern is that my state limits my sales to $5K/$10K/$20K/$50K per year. I...
View ArticleIs A Cookie Business A Good Idea?
“These chocolate chip cookies are amazing… you should sell them!” If I had a dollar for every time someone told me that, I probably wouldn’t need to sell them. With everyone raving about my cookies,...
View ArticleGet Out Of Your Kitchen!
“Another batch?” my mom asked, almost in despair. What she really meant was, “What in the world are we going to do with more fudge?” With another pound of fudge in the works, I was going through the...
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5 Steps for Organizing your Kitchen for a Home Business (Part 1)
HOMEMADE FOR SALE author, Lisa Kivirist, with her mixer. The following is adapted with permission from HOMEMADE FOR SALE: How to Set Up and Market a Food Business from your Home Kitchen by Lisa...
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5 Steps for Organizing your Kitchen for a Home Business (Part 2)
Featured in HOMEMADE FOR SALE, Jennifer Evans, owner of Cookies Plz, decorating cookies in her home kitchen. The following is adapted with permission from HOMEMADE FOR SALE: How to Set Up and Market a...
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Build For Sale, Not For Scale
I’m a dreamer. I can see my fudge business taking off… I can see it on store shelves, I can see huge batches being made, and I can see that I often get a little ahead of myself! With a new year comes...
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Democracy and Selling Homemade Food Products
The following is adapted and expanded with permission from HOMEMADE FOR SALE: How to Set Up and Market a Food Business from your Home Kitchen by Lisa Kivirist and John D. Ivanko Lisa Kivirist,...
View ArticleWhy Online Marketplaces Fail
It’s that time of year again: cottage food laws being introduced, home bakers starting CFOs, and some entrepreneurs launching their cottage food marketplaces. As I’ve written before, Forrager was...
View ArticleHow Many Products Should You Sell?
Samantha Sambile, the owner of Love Batter, recently posted this question on a Facebook group: How many items did you have in your menu when you first started out? I want make it so that I have enough...
View ArticleThe Most Important Ingredient In Your Business
Are you using the most important ingredient in your business? It took me YEARS to start using this ingredient, and I often see other entrepreneurs failing to use it (or not using it as much as they...
View ArticleThe New Cottage Food Rules
A year ago, Wyoming enacted a food freedom law that supporters considered “revolutionary” and a “landmark success”, while others warned of the impending food safety dangers from uncertified kitchens....
View ArticleWhy Cottage Food Laws Matter
A few months ago, I moved from California to Massachusetts with my car, a trailer, and all of my belongings. Now that I’ve settled into my new apartment in my new state, I started exploring ways to...
View ArticleThe Price Is Wrong
Let’s say you’re thinking of selling cupcakes at a local market this summer. How should you price them? You have a few options… Option 1: Calculate How much do your ingredients cost? Add up the flour,...
View ArticleDo You Have An Email List?
Tell me if this sounds familiar: you walk up to a vendor at a farmers market to sample their product. Let’s say they’re selling sourdough bread, and when you try it you’re thinking,”Wow, this bread is...
View ArticleThe Top 5 Tools For Sending Email To Customers
Last week, I wrote about why you should be collecting email addresses. This week, I’ll be covering the top five tools for sending emails to your email list. Email addresses are a simple way to...
View ArticleThe Truth About Running A Business
This past Monday was one of those days where I was too busy to check email. I was out at an event, and by the time I got home in the evening, I opened up my email inbox to find way more...
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Everyone Starts Somewhere
Almost a decade ago, I started building my first website. My professor, Dr. Fuller, gave me the seemingly simple homework assignment of creating a basic one-page website. After three hours of working...
View ArticleStarting Your Food Business The Easy Way
Cottage food laws are designed to make the process of starting a food business much easier, but in some states, it’s still fairly complicated to do. In states like New Mexico, Pennsylvania, and Utah,...
View ArticleStarting A Cottage Food Operation – First Steps
Last week, I wrote about starting your food business the easy way, which covered ways to bypass regulations to prove your business concept as quickly and easily as possible. But let’s say you are ready...
View ArticleSelling at Market: Tips to Return Home “Sold Out”
The following is adapted and expanded with permission from HOMEMADE FOR SALE: How to Set Up and Market a Food Business from your Home Kitchen by Lisa Kivirist and John D. Ivanko Many states’ cottage...
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Starting A Cottage Food Operation – Zoning
Zoning laws may be the largest barrier to starting your cottage food business. Basically, these laws were created to separate business areas from residential ones. Zoning laws are the reason your...
View ArticleStarting A Cottage Food Operation – Health / Ag Departments
A state’s cottage food law is usually the responsibility of either the health or ag department. Many states require some form of license, permit, inspection, or training from one of these departments....
View ArticleStarting A Cottage Food Operation – Business License
When you want to start any type of business, you may be required to get a business license. Once you have checked with zoning and the health/ag department about starting a cottage food operation, you...
View ArticleStarting A Cottage Food Operation – Kitchen Inspection
Before you start a cottage food operation, you may have to get your home kitchen inspected. Inspections are a requirement for all commercial kitchens, but many cottage food laws do not require home...
View ArticleStarting A Cottage Food Operation – Food Safety Training
Some cottage food laws require various types of training, but regardless of the requirements, it’s usually a good idea to take some form of food safety course before starting your home food business....
View ArticleStarting A Cottage Food Operation – Labeling
Nearly all states require a label on cottage food products. A few states only require the product name on the label, but most require a number of elements to be present. In some cases, you may even...
View ArticleShould You Build A Website For Your Small Business?
When it comes to websites, things have changed significantly in the past decade. You may have heard that “every business needs a website” in order to become successful. Today, I think local businesses...
View ArticleStarting A Cottage Food Operation – Allowed Foods
In most states, you can only sell certain types of homemade food. Most cottage food laws only allow nonperishable food items, but some are less restrictive. For instance, Wyoming’s food freedom law...
View ArticleStarting A Cottage Food Operation – Sales Limit
Many states limit the amount of homemade food that you can sell. This limit is usually spelled out in your state’s cottage food law, and although it’s something you should be aware of, you shouldn’t be...
View ArticleStarting A Cottage Food Business – Limitations
Cottage food laws usually limit cottage food operations (CFOs) in a number of ways, the most notable of which are sales limits. This post overviews some of the other limitations that home food...
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Three Tips to Create Labels for Canned Goods that Sell
Cottage food product sold by Inn Serendipity You know your strawberry jam rocks. Or maybe your kids arm-wrestle over the last of your pickles in the jar. Do family members rave over the salsa you give...
View ArticleLaunch your home bakery business in Wisconsin, legally!
Is the aroma of sweet victory coming from the ovens of Wisconsin wafting your way? Here in our state we can finally – legally – sell homemade, non-hazardous baked goods. Or more specifically, it took...
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California’s New Homemade Food Law Comes With A Nasty Surprise
If you’re a crazy cottage food nerd like me, chances are that you’ve already heard too much about California’s AB 626 bill for “microenterprise home kitchen operations“, which has been described as a...
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Researching Your State’s Cottage Food Law
Screenshot of form for updating a cottage food law on Forrager Have you ever wondered how I organize all of the law information on Forrager behind the scenes? How do I choose the grade (or color) for a...
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Businesses Are Like Babies
You know how they say that having a business is like having a baby? I can confirm… it’s totally true. Two months ago, Tara and I welcomed a baby boy into the world! His name is Ray. Before Ray, I knew...
View ArticleNorth Dakota Loses Food Freedom
We just started 2020 and we already have a cottage food law update! Except this time, it’s not a good one. Actually, as far as I recall, this is the first time an established* cottage food law has...
View ArticleWyoming Sets A New Standard For Food Freedom
It’s July 1st, 2020, and for the first time in over 7 years, I’ve added a new rank to Forrager’s map. I named it “freedom”, and Wyoming has the honor of being the first state to reach this status! As...
View ArticleHow The Coronavirus Pandemic Impacted The Cottage Food Industry in 2020
Recently I was asked to briefly describe how COVID-19 has impacted the cottage food industry this year. Here’s what I wrote for that blog post: “The pandemic has impacted everyone differently, but it...
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2020 Cottage Food Industry Recap
2020 was not just a year full of changes for the nation and world. It was also a year which changed the cottage food industry… sometimes for the worse, but mostly for the better. There were a number...
View Article2021 Cottage Food Bills
2021 is a fresh start in so many ways, but as always, a new year means a new round of cottage food bills! And what a big round it is! Over one-third of states are actively working on improving their...
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New Jersey Finally Passes A Cottage Food Law!
After a 12 year battle, New Jersey finally has a cottage food law! They are the last state to create one, and they will be the last state to get the “pending” status on Forrager’s map. Although the...
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Behind The Scenes Of A Cottage Food Bill
Last week, on September 16th, 2021, California’s governor signed AB 1144, a cottage food bill that will improve California’s cottage food law. It is the last of 17 cottage food initiatives that have...
View Article2021 Recap: A Record Year for the Cottage Food Industry
WOW… what a year it has been for our growing cottage food industry! As I wrote about last year, the pandemic really highlighted the need for people to be able to sell their homemade food. And in 2021,...
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